THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK
Daltonganj, February 15: What does a fish have to do with the national public audit of the MGNREGA held at the grounds of a government plus two schools at Ranka on Wednesday?
Noted economist Jean Dreze
At this audit, noted economist Jean Dreze flaunted a fish. It was to drive a point home that earthworks like digging ponds, etc, under the MGNREGA scheme sustains life, and this fish is a bond with the workers who had done the pond under the MGNREGA scheme, said the state convener of NREGA Watch Jharkhand James Herenj.
Rs 330 crore MGNREGA wages pending
However, the MGNREGA scheme is gasping. According to James Herenj, there is a huge pendency of MGNREGA wages to Rs 330 crores alone in Jharkhand. This fund transfer order for payment of wages has been pending since December 13, 2023.
It’s work (read employment) on demand by the unskilled worker. Where demand for jobs under the MGNREGA scheme is made, work is only offered for a few weeks. As per the act, it should come within 15 days from the day of demand.
James Herenj told the Jharkhand Story, “We have one Jodha Korwa in Sarhuwa village under the Ramgarh block in Palamu. What this particularly vulnerable tribal told us aches our heart.”
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Migration is rampant
“Migration is rampant. Young men and women have left their homes and hearth to earn a living outside Palamu and Jharkhand. It is only the fragile who are in the village. If there is the death of any fragile, then there are no people around to carry the bier,” recalled James Herenj with profound sorrow.
The public hearing or audit noted that MGNREGA is now back-shelved. No one talks about it when it should have been a mission to fight poverty.
Digital intervention in MGNREGA has further distanced it from whom it was built.
Jairam Ramesh pleads for Urban Job Act
Jairam Ramesh, gracing this public hearing at Ranka, pleaded for introducing the Urban Employment Guarantee Act in Jharkhand on the pattern of Rajasthan, where the Urban Employment Guarantee Act is enforced. It was the Congress doing there in Rajasthan.
Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra
Wind and steam left the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Jharkhand when Rahul Gandhi pushed off for Delhi.
As a face-saving strategy, the Nyay Yatra was held at Ranka, more under compulsion to keep word with the MGNREGA workers from adjoining states like Bihar, Chhattisgarh, etc.
There were good orators here, like Kanhaiya Kumar and others at Ranka, but oration is different, food is different, and MGNREG is directly linked to food.
Yatra fails to connect with common man
The Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra failed to connect with the man in the street here. It is because of the miserable organisational deficiency in the Congress here.
The district units treated this as mundane, such as shouting at the collectorate ground for drinking water facilities, etc. There was a lack of warmth towards it.
The Nyay Yatra could have hit the BJP the hard way here following growing resentment among the Adivasis here for jailing Hemant Soren, but the Congress missed this opportunity.
There are 28 tribal assembly seats here in Jharkhand, where the poll writ of the Adivasis is run. The wind is blowing against the BJP. There is anger here among tribals. The Congress just failed to touch it up.
Once the ECI brings in a model code of conduct, people will be busy making calculations for winning and losing, and Nyay Yatra will be a forgotten thing, at least in Jharkhand.
